


Of gingers and sunburns...

by Nuredhel



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Accident, Alternate Universe, Comfort, Elves and sunburn, Fanfic for Rogercat, Fanfic of Fanfic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, angry moms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 10:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6607360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuredhel/pseuds/Nuredhel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Maedhros leaves for the market she thinks her son is safe... But she is unfortunately wrong. And the sun is hardly a friend of those With red hair and fair skin... <br/>Fan fiction based on the stories Painful Meetings, Sins of the past and Tears of blood by Rogercat. This is Au where Maedhros is a female and has a son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of gingers and sunburns...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rogercat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/gifts).



Of gingers and sunburns….

The sun was shining from a sky without even a single cloud, and the city of Tirion was buzzing with life. There were elves everywhere for there was a huge market going on and the noise level was so high it did possibly reach even the valar in their home at Taniquetil. The home of the Fëanorian family was not very quiet at all, the entire clan was gathered to celebrate Nerdanel’s begetting day and so the house was packed, there were elves sleeping everywhere and the rooms were so crowded Fëanor had left the entire place for some hours complaining about not being able to hear his own thoughts!

The newest addition to the family, young Rusa was playing with a wooden sword out in the garden, he was way too small yet but he tried and stubborn as he was he refused to accept that his tiny body was unable to do things like fencing yet. Maedhros was helping Nerdanel in the kitchen, they were to have a huge feast that evening and everything had to be ready. There were plenty of friends and family who gladly would have taken it upon themselves to prepare the food but Nerdanel didn’t want anyone else to even touch her stuff. Only Maedhros was allowed that honor and the two nissi were busy baking and making dinner. Maedhros still had a hard time believing that she could eat all that she wanted and she would constantly have small tastes of the food, just to see that it was good, but Nerdanel saw straight through it. Her daughter still needed to confirm that this was real and just not some dream. 

Nerdanel had some secret recipes and she guarded them like a bear with hungry cubs, Maedhros was sent out to shop the stuff they needed for the salad since it had to be bought the same day it was to be made. The vegetables would go bad in the summer heat if it was left over night. Maedhros agreed, she got her hat and veil on since it was very warm and the sun had a tendency of being a bit too much for her skin. After all, she had been reborn as an adult and her body hadn’t had the time to adapt just yet. She wore a huge hat and the lovely veil she used to shield her face had become high fashion among the ladies of Tirion. Hers was made by Miriel herself and it was so silky and beautiful that some thought it had to be the work of Vaire. 

Rusa was still trying to fence, stumbling around on tiny legs and since the garden was rather peaceful Maedhros stopped and stared at him. She was afraid he would overexert himself and grasped onto her nephew Celebrimbor who was trying to read some very old scrolls about how to combine different metals. “Tyelpe dear, could you please keep an eye on Rusa? It is time for his nap soon, and could you make sure he stays out of the sun?”   
Celebrimbor just nodded, he was really too busy to be a babysitter but Rusa wasn’t going anywhere and he did of course want to help his aunt. “Of course” 

Maedhros smiled and patted his cheek and left for the market and Rusa kept fooling around until his energy sort of dropped. He was after all in the body of a toddler and when the frantic energy of such little ones is spent it is lights out almost immediately. He yawned and Celebrimbor got to his feet and lifted Rusa gently, placed him in the hammock at the back of the garden where there was a nice shade and not too hot. Rusa just curled himself up and fell asleep and Celebrimbor returned to his scrolls. Darn this was interesting, he had to test it out someday. 

Maedhros reached the market and started looking for the right ingredients. She found some nice tomatoes and some lettuce and she bought a dozen eggs too, but she was looking for eggplant and that wasn’t easy to find. Those she did find were too ripe and not suited for the dish they were to make. And she needed some cabbage too, and carrots and some berries and she would never settle for anything but top quality so she spent quite some time there, and besides, she loved being at the market among others without having to fear anything. There were so many nice things to look at and she sort of forgot about the time. 

As Rusa slept peacefully in the hammock Celebrimbor was reading and then Caranthir and Curufin showed up and they started discussing the methods described and soon he joined his father and uncle in the forge, eager to see if it could be done the way the scroll said it would. Rusa was sleeping like a log and wouldn’t go anywhere so what harm could there be in leaving for a few minutes? As it were minutes became hours rather fast, and Celebrimbor was after all born in the years of the trees, he wasn’t yet accustomed to the fact that the sun does move! The once shady back garden weren’t that shady anymore, now it was in full sunlight and so was the hammock. 

Everybody were so busy preparing for the feast and Finwë would come and so would the rest of the family too so they were building one huge table in the front yard to have room for everybody. Celegorm and the ambarrussa were trying to put a table cloth on it but none they found were large enough and Huan kept dragging it off too. Maglor were supposed to sing and he had retreated to the music room for some peace and quiet and Nerdanel was running around herself trying to get everything in perfect order. 

Maedhros returned rather late, they would have to hurry with the salad but she hadn’t been able to find the right berries anywhere and had to leave the market and search through the small shops along the back roads to find what she needed. Now she was tired and dusty and stressed out. Celebrimbor met her at the gate and told her how frantic their mother had become and Maedhros hurried towards the garden to pick up Rusa. He had to have slept for some hours now and she knew that he by now had recharged his energy and probably would go through the roof rather soon. She walked into the garden and then she let out a loud yell, tossed the baskets in the air and ran to her son.   


Her hat and veil went flying and so did all the groceries. Celegorm tried desperately to catch the baskets before the food got ruined and he sort of managed it but the eggs which were laid on top went flying and three of them ended up in his face, one in his hair and two on his shirt. And some lettuce found a nice place to land in his hair too, it looked as if he was trying to wear some fancy green hat! 

Maedhros grasped onto Rusa, he was beet red and since he hadn’t been wearing that much in the heat his face and arms and legs were badly sunburned. Rusa of course woke up, and he immediately went into panic mode. He was suddenly in pain, he was being held tightly and to him that only meant one thing. He was back in Angband! He started bawling from the top of his lungs and Curufin and Celebrimbor came sprinting, Curufin stared at Celegorm with huge eyes, eggs were running off him and he had to laugh, “Is that some sort of new and interesting fashion? Or are you perhaps trying some new skin treatment?”  


Maedhros had her arms full of a writhing and screaming elfling and yet she managed to throw a glance at Celebrimbor that could have frozen the sundering sea. He cringed and knew he had screwed up, big time. Maedhros yelled at him. “ I told you to keep him out of the sun Eru damn it, how could you let this happen?!”  


Celebrimbor saw that Rusa was blistering and red and he felt horrible, he had forgotten all about the elfling and he knew that this was his fault entirely. He had forgotten his duty and he didn’t know what to say. Rusa was struggling, he was getting hotter by the minute since he was using his muscles and Maedhros ran into the house, eyes huge and face pale. “Ammë, hurry! Get some ointment and lotions, and bandages too”

Nerdanel came rushing when she heard the yelling and she stopped abruptly and gasped, she saw the problem immediately. Since she too was a ginger she knew the risks of sunburn and she could still to this day remember the one time the ambarussa had gone to the beach as they visited Alqualonde and gotten burned so badly they were shedding skin for weeks afterwards. She ran out into the herbal garden and got some aloe leaves but she didn’t have that much of the plant and just a few leaves were probably not enough. She helped Maedhros hold the elfling but Rusa was beside himself now. He saw that the others there were upset and his nana was angry and he was sure he had done something bad, something he would be punished for. Nerdanel managed to get some of the aloe onto his arms but his face was glowing red and he was shivering since the bad burns caused a fever. 

The ointment and the herb made his skin hurt even more, and he shrieked and thrashed and managed to break free, ran off like a two legged missile and he was just gone. Maedhros was close to tears and she ran after him but he had disappeared like a ghost. Since he was so small he could fit into almost every small spot you could think off and he was a master at hiding. Before ten minutes was gone the entire household was busy looking for the lost elfling. Maedhros was crying with fear and she was feeling guilty for having left him behind. Celebrimbor was almost crying too, for having forgotten to watch out and the others were running around everywhere, calling and checking every room. Fëanor returned home and joined the effort and after a while Finwë and the rest of the family too arrived and were told of the situation. The property was ransacked from roof to cellars and some even went knocking on the walls, seeing if there could be hidden rooms somewhere. The ambarrussa climbed into the well just to check that out and Curufin searched through the forges and the storage rooms with a fine tooth comb but didn’t find even a hair.

Rusa had to be somewhere! He couldn’t have vanished into thin air and they knew that they had to find him before he got really ill. Elves do not get sick but injuries like bad burns can still damage them and Rusa was young and emotionally scarred too. That could affect the body a lot, Maedhros was beside herself with worry and Nerdanel was busy trying to prevent her daughter from having a mental breakdown. 

Rusa was hiding well, and he knew it. He wouldn’t let them find him, no way! He was convinced that this was his fault somehow and that they would hurt him. The burns hurt like hell and he was feeling very odd, dizzy almost. He was cold and he whimpered and shivered, what could he do now? He couldn’t get out, there were people running around everywhere and he remembered the days of his past life where he had to fight just to stay alive and he was afraid that they would lock him up or something like that. 

Celebrimbor was running around too, he wanted to find the elfling to make up for the error he had made and he tried to think. Where would a frightened elfling go to hide? Where could they look that hadn’t already been searched through at least twice already? Maedhros was afraid her son would perish if they didn’t find him soon for his burns had been terrible and Celebrimbor knew that his aunt never would forgive him if that happened. He bit his lower lip and stared at the garden, Rusa couldn’t have left the property, the gates were closed and there were servants guarding them. He could not have escaped over the roofs for they would have seen that and the chimneys had been checked thoroughly.

Celebrimbor suddenly realized that there was one member of the family he hadn’t seen during their frantic search, Huan! The huge wolf hound was nowhere to be seen and that was unusual to say the least, where people went so did he and Celebrimbor ran off towards the yard where the stables and the kennel lay. Huan had a dog house in a corner of the yard, it wasn’t large and rather simple but it was well made and solid and Celebrimbor saw that Huan was inside. The legs of the dog were sticking out and he bent down and stared into the doghouse and voila, there he was. Curled up against the back wall, shivering and panting and almost unconscious. Huan was licking the elfling and whined and Celebrimbor reached in and grasped Rusa gently and hauled him out of the dark room. He was so hot and Celebrimbor saw that huge blisters had formed almost everywhere the skin had been exposed. He picked the elfling up and ran off, burst into the kitchen where Maedhros sat and she screamed and almost collapsed. Nerdanel had to physically restrain her to keep her from grasping the elfling herself.   
Celebrimbor got Rusa onto a table and now everybody got very busy. Nerdanel was shouting orders, a bathtub was being filled with cold water and since they had gotten some ice to cool down the wine they added that too. After a quick soak in that Nerdanel started smearing ointments all over the tiny body and some of the other females of the family helped her. They put bandages made from silk onto the burns and managed to get Rusa into a soft bed before they made him drink some painkillers and something for the fever. 

Since Huan had licked him they feared an infection and they all knew that the next days would be tough on the elfling. Severe sunburns are painful for a long time and he would lose a lot of skin too. The medicine also contained a sleeping draught so Rusa stayed asleep and the celebration became a rather muted one. They ate and chatted but the merry mood they had expected was nowhere to be seen. Everybody was worried for him and Maedhros didn’t leave his bed even to eat. They had to bring the food to her. Finwë was trying to make Celebrimbor feel less bad about it, but he didn’t quite prevail and Celegorm had to spend some time in the baths, trying to get rid of the eggs. Apparently eggs can be very sticky if they aren’t removed at once. 

Maedhros slept by Rusa’s bed that night and in the morning she felt horrible and looked rather bad too with her hair in a mess and her clothes wrinkled and dirty. Rusa still slept and they used the opportunity to smear more ointments onto him and massage his skin gently so it wouldn’t become too stiff and crack. Fëanor had managed to get hold of one of the maiar who often visited the city, and he willingly checked the elfling for serious damage. Rusa would be fine, but it would take some time before he was completely recovered and the maia spent some time pouring healing energy into the elfling before he left.

Maedhros was very grateful the maia had agreed upon visiting, and Rusa did look better by now but she still felt terribly sorry for him and Nerdanel made a suggestion. Since he was that sensitive to the sun they ought to make him wear something to protect him all the time. He would need a veil to shield his face and shirts with long sleeves and short pants were out of the question completely. Maedhros was afraid that it would make him feel like some freak but as Nerdanel put it, ginger elves are rare already and to avoid more painful incidents it had to be done. 

Rusa woke up that evening, most of the guests had left already but Finwë had stayed behind to watch how Rusa was doing. The elfling was utterly confused at first, his head hurt, he had an awful taste in his mouth and he could barely move because of all the bandages. He was afraid again but Maedhros hugged him and made sure he couldn’t bolt as she explained the situation to him. He sort of calmed down since he after all was mentally an adult but it hurt still and he did feel very sorry for himself. The local healer dropped by with some medicine and told them to keep him out of the sun for at least two weeks. That news almost made Rusa go ballistic, being trapped indoors for that long? He would go insane! 

Celebrimbor came up with the solution and was suddenly in Rusa’s favor again. He suggested that they could use the huge riding hall located near the royal palace, it was shady and cool and he could teach Rusa how to ride a horse. In fact, he wanted to give Rusa a horse as a compensation for his blunder. That news made the elfling go ballistic yet again, now for another reason and Maedhros had to sigh and agree that yes, it was a good idea. Of course Celebrimbor would use one of the tiny ponies to start with and he would give the elfling a foal so they could grow up together. Elven horses have very long lifespans so that wouldn’t be a problem and he already knew of a promising colt. So Rusa agreed upon staying in bed for three days, and he was pampered like never before. Nerdanel did give him treats, his uncles were giving him treats, Celebrimbor was giving him candy and Maedhros tried desperately to protect her son from getting the sugar rush of all times. Rusa on the other hand loved the attention and was exploiting the affection and care and indulgence for all it was worth, being sick wasn’t so bad after all when he got all the attention and candy he could ever wish for, even though it made him feel rather like a balloon filled with hot air. 

Maedhros was a bit reluctant, after all Celebrimbor had screwed up rather royally but she knew how bad he felt about it and if she sort of showed her distrust it would hurt him, so she let him take her son to the riding hall although she felt very nervous. Rusa was shedding skin now, huge flakes of it and the veil did prevent anyone from seeing that he by now looked like a sausage that has been slightly overcooked. They smeared him with medicine three times a day and he accepted it and the ambarrussa too started wearing veils, just so he wouldn’t be alone doing that. They kept switching veils and making every body confused and had great fun doing that. Rusa had barely ever ridden a horse and it was very different from riding a warg and he sort of liked it.   
The pony he got was a stocky little fellah with a huge belly and short legs and he could kick and shout and jump and the pony wouldn’t even move a hoof until Celebrimbor told him to. At the end of the two week period he started to look normal but Maedhros was being warned that he always would be a bit sensitive to sunlight and would have to be careful each spring until he developed a good tan.   


Celebrimbor kept his promise and one evening he brought the foal with him, a long legged black little beauty sired by the best stallion they had and under a very good mare and Rusa was beside himself with joy. He promptly named the colt Huine which means shadow and sort of bonded with him right away. The sunburn and the entire incident was completely forgotten and Celebrimbor was finally forgiven. The foal made Rusa occupied and made him less aggressive and so Maedhros too gave her nephew a firm hug and publicly forgave him. But for many years to come Rusa wore the veil and he never forgot the agony of the sunburn so he preferred the cool shades of the garden, or the green moist forests where his father’s clan kept him safe and taught him all that he needed to know. He had learned the downsides of being a ginger, once and for all.   



End file.
